Olympics of the VIsual Arts 2017

 Every year since I've retired, I've helped judge a statewide creative competition called Olympics of the Visual Arts, or OVA, and I've blogged about it here.  This year's event took place a couple of weeks ago.  My time judging was a whirlwind and I didn't get to see as much of the work as in previous years, plus I was wrestling with a camera problem so my pics are not great, but still I thought I'd share a taste of the kids' works with you here.  I was a judge in the painting category, where the theme had to do with optical illusions.  The students have a lot of options for how to approach their creations.  The piece above is elementary level, and directly below is a high school piece. 

My personal favorite painted illusion is shown below.  The only thing "real" on the table is the pencil.  Seriously. This is a middle school piece!  Pretty impressive, no?

I thought the elementary piece pictured below was a lot of fun, with the infinite reflection beginning with the 3-D element.  This piece was huge. 

 Another awesome middle school level work of art, below.

 Honestly, I only got to breeze through the work in the sculpture, architecture, photography, and illustration categories.  And I didn't get to see the fashion creations at all, which was kind of disappointing, since they are always so amazingly incredible.  Anyhow, here's a few more pics of what I did get to see. 

I don't know what the challenge was, but the piece below seems to have an an Alice in Wonderland/underwater tea party sort of theme, I think?

I'll close with one more optical illusion piece with a 3-dimensional element, created by a team of high school students. 

 To see work from previous years, and read more information about this event, you can check out my prior posts at these links from 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013. 

Olympics of the Visual Arts 2016

Ever since I retired, I've annually volunteered as a judge at the fabulous Olympics of the Visual Arts.  OVA is a program/competition for students sponsored by NYSATA, the NY state art teacher's association.  *Note: The artwork in the first 4 photos in this post are from the sculpture category, and are each a sculptural interpretation of a piece of contemporary popular music. 

Styled after the Odyssey of the Mind model, OVA participating teams come from schools throughout the state, in elementary, middle, and high school levels, competing in both long term projects and a spontaneous competition.   The long term projects are based on tasks in selected categories. Students use research and brainstorming in their planning and are required to submit a portfolio documenting their work along with the final presentation.  The categories include sculpture, architecture, fashion design, drawing, painting, illustration, graphic design, and photography. You can see my previous annual OVA posts here (2015), here (2014), and here (2013).  To read more about the program, follow this link and this link to info on the NYSATA webpage;  to read this year's intriguing long term problems, hop on over to this link.

 The next batch of photos are from the photo category.  The theme had to do with reflections, and interpretations of the word were broad.  For example, the group creating the piece directly below was reflecting about toxic waste!  There were reflections on identity, and there were much more literal reflections as well. 

I was again a judge in the photography category.  We had more photography entries than in previous years, so we were judging and adding up scores until the last moment, including judging/scoring the spontaneous projects as well.  Unfortunately, this meant gobbling down lunch while we added up scores, and I had very little time this year to snap pics of the array of incredible work.  So forgive me if my photos aren't up to par!   Then I had to leave before the awards were given out, due to another commitment.  But at least I have a few fun photos to share with you!!

I was looking forward to seeing the Illustration category, since they were based on one of my all-time favorite poems from a favorite piece of literature: The Jabberwocky, from Lewis Carrol's Through the Looking Glass.  When I was in high school, my older brother gave me a copy of the Annotated Alice, and this book is still one of the most beloved books in my my personal collection.  Here's a few images from the student work based on this poem.

Here's a slightly better close-up of the piece above -

The painting category involved imagining a creative environment, an environment that would encourage creativity.

The fashion category is always everyone's big favorite, with the most entries.  The work is amazing!  Unfortunately, I didn't get to witness the catwalk modeling, which is the spontaneous portion of the fashion category.  But I did get to see some terrific pieces, still on their mannequins.  The theme was "Trashy", and the pieces are all made from paper products often found in the trash.  And no, the black dress is NOT made from duct tape.  Not allowed!!

 There were, along with the amazing outfits, several glamorous hats (like the one on the mannequin above, left) and this pair of adorable shoes below!!

I don't know if any other state has an event like OVA.  If not, you really should look at the model we've set up here in NY, and give it a try!  It's a phenomenal event, and it can be a pretty viable bit of advocacy for art education!

Olympics of the Visual Arts 2015

The creativity amazes me every year.  Today, for the third time, I served as a judge in the statewide OVA (Olympics of the Visual Arts) competition, held down the road in Saratoga Springs.  I've talked about OVA on this blog before, here, and here, but if you don't want to hop over to the old posts to read, let me just briefly explain.  OVA is styled after the Odyssey of the Mind model, with teams in elementary, middle, and high school levels competing in both long term projects and a spontaneous competition.  The program is sponsored by NYSATA, my state art educators' association.  The long term projects are in categories such as sculpture, architecture, fashion design, drawing, painting, illustration, and photography.  You can read official information about OVA here, and see the official problem categories and what each challenge was this year here. Students have to provide documentation of research, brainstorming, and their creative process as part of their long-term problem presentation.  The work is extensive.

Above, students are spread out working on their spontaneous problem solutions.  This is just a tiny portion of the 4 rooms filled with students and their incredible creations. 

This was my 3rd year judging the photography category, and I love being able to participate. But somehow, in the midst of all my judging and eating (yes, they provided a yummy lunch for judges) and exploring, the above project was unfortunately the only photography piece I actually snapped!  It was a middle school entry, and was the only entry that used projection in their presentation.  For their 'forms in nature' project, they had explored the Fibonacci sequence in nature.  They had a rotating and constantly changing video projection in the middle of a giant sunflower they had built.  The above photos do not do it justice. 

The sculpture problem had to do with deconstructing and reconstructing materials.  The above piece drew a lot of attention, but when I got a closer look, something inside me was really disturbed by the concept of all those poor broken Barbies, that should be having their hair done and wearing glamorous clothes, and going on dates.  I am a child of the original Barbie generation, and I don't care how politically incorrect or non-feminist Barbie is; I did and always will love Barbie.  You can read a little more about my Barbie obsession here.  The two pieces pictured at the top of this post are also sculptures from deconstructed materials.

I was fascinated with this piece, consisting of 4 hamsa hands with tiny peepholes.  Inside the peepholes were mini tableaus.  What an original concept!

 looking inside:

 Meanwhile, the fashion category is always the most popular.  For their spontaneous project, they have a fashion show.  As a judge in a different category, I unfortunately haven't gotten to see the fashion shows, but I hear they are fabulous!  The pieces below are constructed entirely of paper, and are based on works by artists.

 Below, my absolute favorite (I love the Picasso painting that inspired it); I would have loved to see this in the fashion show!

 There was so much incredible student artwork I could show you, but I'll close with a few fun pieces, including an amazing black and white re-creation of van Gogh's Bedroom at Arles.  Re-imagining/re-interpreting a famous work of art in black and white was the core of the painting problem. 

 I mean, how cool is that???!!?!?

Congratulations to all the student artists who took the time to participate in OVA, build their portfolios, and bring their projects to completion.  You kids rock!!